'Heirloom Kitchen' spotlights treasured international recipes

Thursday

Anna Francese Gass immigrated to the United States from Italy as a child. Now a professional cook, she’s sharing family recipes that reflect the diversity of American cuisine.

“Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage and Family Stories From The Tables of Immigrant Women” is her effort to preserve recipes and cooking traditions from 45 cooks from around the world. Their photos and stories share about their cooking styles and personalities. The recipes are favorite foods from Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and the Middle East.

Gass lives in Connecticut and is a contributing writer for Msn.com. She’s a graduate of the French Culinary Institute.

“Heirloom Kitchen” is priced at $29.99 and is available online from Amazon and cookbook retailers.

Lucy’s Hummus

Makes 3 cups

Prep: 15 minutes

Total: 15 minutes

Lucy Yeranossian's hummus is a hot commodity. Her family requests it for all their gatherings, and if her daughter Christine goes to a dinner party, her friends won’t let her in the door without it. According to Yeranossian, when eating hummus, you should never dip your pita into the communal hummus. Her mother taught her that the gluten in the pita will ruin the taste of the hummus you leave behind. Do as the Armenians do—spoon some hummus into your dish and dip away.

Place the chickpeas, tahini, salt, half of the garlic, and half of the lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse for 2 minutes.

Scrape down the sides and taste. Add more of the lemon juice or garlic as desired. Pulse to incorporate.

To serve, scoop the hummus onto a large serving dish. Arrange the olives around the edge of the dish and sprinkle the hummus with chopped parsley and a drizzle of oil. Serve with pita bread

Note: If your saved hummus thickens overnight, you can stir in a few tablespoons of the reserved chickpea liquid to bring it back to your desired consistency.

Safoi’s Chicken Tagine

Serves 6

Prep: 25 minutes

Total: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Safoi Babana-Hampton has many beautiful tagines in her home in Michigan. A tagine is a cooking vessel used in many Moroccan recipes that’s made of earthenware and has a domed top that returns all condensation to the food, keeping everything moist. It is perfect for slow-cooked foods. Stews and bone-in chicken dishes are created in this beautiful pot, and the flavor is unmatched. Meat falls off the bone and all the flavors marry together. If you invest in one, you may never use your slow cooker again. Tagine is also the name of a type of dish commonly served in Morocco. A tagine is a slow cooked savory and hearty stew that is made in the pot of the same name. If you already own a slow cooker, you don’t necessarily have to buy a tagine (see Note).

For the marinade

½ teaspoon saffron threads

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground

Black pepper

½ cup (120 ml) extra virgin olive oil

½ cup (120 ml) canola oil

For the stew

1 (1½-pound/1.7 kg) whole chicken

7 large carrots, peeled

1 small yellow onion, minced

½ cup (75 g) olives (Mediterranean or Kalamata)

½ preserved lemon, sliced thin

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Combine the saffron, ginger, salt, pepper, olive oil, and canola oil in a large bowl. Set aside.

Clean and thoroughly wash the chicken, then cut it into 8 pieces.

Add the chicken to the bowl with the marinade, massaging the marinade into the chicken.

Cut the carrots in half and remove their yellow cores.

Open the tagine and lay the onion on the bottom. Arrange the carrots over the onion.

Lay the chicken with all of the marinade over the vegetables. Add 1 cup (240 ml) water and cover.

Cook on very low heat for 1 hour. Check at the 30-minute mark to ensure the bottom is not dry. Add another ½ cup (120 ml) water if necessary.

In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the olives and the preserved lemon. 9. Garnish with parsley to serve.

Note: To make this recipe in a slow cooker, follow the directions through step 7, and set the slow cooker on high for 4 hours. Add the olives and lemon at the 3-hour-and-45-minute mark.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.